Week 7 #osgcookbook Challenge

Week 7 was a whirlwind! I had three lovely house guests stay a few nights – my girlfriends from University – and we had a blast catching up and being goofballs! I miss them already!!! There we all are together in the shots below, aren’t they gorgeous!? Love you Kelsey, Everry and Saiswari! Missed you so much Jen! And thanks to my husband Dhiren for taking these beautiful photos! XOX

It was tough to stick to my four-recipes-a-week challenge, but I must say that for week 7 to be the first time I’ve been (almost) too busy to manage it, I’m doing pretty good. The really difficult thing was finding the time to photograph the yummy dishes I was serving my girls! You will notice that the food in some of these shots is already half devoured. We had several, “Oh no, we forgot to take a picture!” moments. That’s okay though, it only proves how delicious everything was! Oh and also how hungry we were after our sunset walk around the neighborhood.

The thing about feeding guests is I always want to serve tried-and-true recipes; things I know taste great and have made a million times so I’ve worked out all the kinks. So while I did serve two new dishes to my very adventurous taste-testers, I also made them a few of my favorites. The major hit for the week was the Oh She Glows Effortless Vegan Overnight Oats. You can read more about my love of this breakfast dish in this post, and also find a recipe for these creamy dreamy oats on Angela’s blog here. During the next few days after my friends went back home, they each sent me photos of themselves making and enjoying the overnight oats themselves. It feels so great to be able to share a favorite recipe with friends and inspire them to incorporate new, healthy meals into their lives! Maybe you’ll be inspired to do the same this week! Here are the four new #osgcookbook recipes I made this week to tempt your taste buds and hopefully entice you to check out the book yourself!

Life Affirming Warm Nacho Dip

One of my lovely house guests this week was the very lady who introduced me to Oh She Glows. Thanks Everry! I knew one of her favorite recipes from the book was for this delicious, cheesy nacho dip, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try it out! We all loved it, a little too much, because I barely managed to get this photo before it disappeared. Everry told me she likes to get creative with add-ins for this dip, especially stirring in chopped olives. It’s truly cheesy, creamy, and reminiscent of traditional nacho dip, but totally healthy. The girls could not believe it was vegan!

Crowd Pleasing Tex-Mex Casserole

This was a great, easy dish to prepare for a group. It called for canned tomatoes, which I am avoiding, so I just used chopped plum tomatoes. It worked out well! I would have preferred it to be a little spicier and more flavorful, so I’ll add extra jalapenos and increase the quantity of spices next time. I must say, I didn’t like this recipe quite as much as the Enchiladas in the same chapter. The Tex Mex Casserole is more of an easy, one size fits all kind of recipe that is sure to please adults and children alike, which is exactly what it promises. But if you like Mexican food and know the people you are serving enjoy a little spice, I’d recommend the Enchiladas instead.

Super-Power Chia Bread

A few weeks ago I made the Crunchy Seed & Oat Flatbread from the Breakfast chapter of the book. You can read more about it here. This Super-Power Chia Bread, found in the Snacks section, is extremely similar, with pretty much the same ingredients just in different quantities, including a whole lot more Chia seeds. I like both breads, but I prefer the Crunchy Seed & Oat Flatbread. This Chia bread is a little gummier, and the seeds kind of have that slightly slimy texture they get when they have been soaked. Okay, that sounds way worse than it is, but still, if you don’t like chia seeds in your smoothies because of that odd texture they have, you may have issues with this bread. Putting that aside, it is a tasty snack with some hummus on top and I am sure my hubby is going to enjoy it as a break from his usual granola bar at work tomorrow 🙂

Raw Buckwheat Flour

So this is a bit of a cheat because I made this flour a few weeks back when I made the Crunchy Seed & Oat Flatbread, but I didn’t count it as one of my four recipes then so I will now. Because it’s been a crazy week and a girl needs a break once in a while. If you’ve never bought buckwheat groats before, they look like tiny little dried peas (except brown). I was a bit worried they would be too hard to blend but it was no problem at all. I love the smell of them when they’re blended and baked into bread, very nutty and savory. It’s kind of funny that I love the smell so much, because shortly after cooking them for the first time, I watched an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine was going on about old people’s homes smelling like ‘Kasha’. I immediately googled ‘Kasha’ and found out it’s buckwheat!!! Boy did I die of laughter! I guess that makes me old. It’s official.

Hi Mary! Thanks for your interest! I am blogging about the Oh She Glows cookbook by Angela Liddon. You can find great recipes of hers at ohsheglows.com, but for the nacho dip you must buy the book 🙂 My blog is like a companion guide if you have the book. It’s an amazing resource for vegan recipes so I’d highly recommend the investment!